Courtesy of Aubrey EdwardsKatey Red, who is celebrating a 10th anniversary as a 'sissy' bounce performer, says other gay performers 'appreciate me coming out, so they can do their own thing.'

In the mainstream music world, New Orleans rap is one of the hottest things going. Artists like Lil Wayne and Juvenile represent the city on the charts and at awards shows.

Back at home, though, one of the hottest performers in the game is Katey Red - a leggy, 6-foot-plus male-to-female transsexual bounce rapper who is anything but shy about her sexuality.

Red, who teaches baton twirling when she's not performing, entered the music industry a decade ago as the protege of DJ Jubilee, who brought her to the Take Fo Records label. Her 1999 Take Fo debut, "Melpomene Block Party," introduced the subgenre of "sissy bounce" to the rap vocabulary. Tonight, Red will celebrate her 10th anniversary as a performer with a group show featuring several other gay rappers who emerged in her wake.

"A lot of them haven't been seen in a long time," she said. "But since I was the first homosexual rapper, I've opened doors for those people. So it's like they appreciate me coming out, so they can do their own thing."

This anniversary year has been an eventful one for Red and the momentum shows no signs of slowing. On New Year's Eve, she appeared unannounced onstage at Tipitina's with Galactic, with whom she has collaborated on a track for their upcoming album.

"I did the song with Galactic, and it really gave me a chance to explore different music, different beats," she said. "I liked it -- nothing wrong with venturing out."

The week before Mardi Gras, she headlined a sold-out show titled the "Sissy Bounce Sweethearts' Ball" at One Eyed Jacks in the French Quarter. She also appeared on the Congo Square Stage at Jazz Fest with fellow sissy rappers Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby -- both friends since their days on the cheerleading and baton squads at Walter L. Cohen High School -- and is currently in discussion about a slot at the 2009 Voodoo Music Experience.

Red's show is a whirlwind of diva glamour. At the One Eyed Jacks show, she executed two costume changes mid-set and was backed by dancers wearing matching satin warm-up jackets, performing choreographed moves. Her lyrics, though, are aggressively out-and-proud, marked by the raw and often lewd sexuality that characterizes a lot of bounce music. They also tell it like it is. "Stupid," a duet she recorded with Big Freedia, ridicules anyone who might disparage or misunderstand them: "You are so stupid/ for calling us guys/ please don't knock it till you give it a try."

Red's sold-out Carnival show, her first headlining set at a mainstream rock club, was intended to be a treat for her extensive rock¤'n¤'roll hipster fan base, who had only seen her at sporadic gigs at underground venues like Bywater's Spellcaster Lodge over the past decade. This weekend's show at Club Fusions is meant to bring it back home to the gay African-American community.

"That's why I'm having my second 10th anniversary party at a gay club, because I don't want to leave them out," she said. "It's sissy bounce at a sissy club."

With a packed roster, it's also meant to celebrate the surprisingly large scene of gay New Orleans rappers inspired to come out by Red's success. Vockah Redu, Chev off the Ave and S.W.A. (Sissies With Attitude) will all perform, as will Big Freedia and Sissy Nobby.

At the show, each artist will perform a song from Red's catalog.

"I loved my first 10th anniversary party so much I had to have another one," she said.